Find A Need And Fill It

Find a need and fill it was the title of a recent article that caught my eye while reading the Recruiting and Staffing Solutions Magazine that I subscribe to. I remember hearing this often over the years – seems it is a truism that is older than dirt, or at least as old as the first savvy business owner and their effort to simplify their business down to the nuts and bolts of what will help them become successful and make the money they needed.

Cover of Zig: The Autobiography of Zig Ziglar

As I looked closer at the article I saw that it was written by one of my all time favorite motivational speakers and trainers, Zig Ziglar. He was one of the first motivational speakers I ever heard when I cut my teeth in the business world over 20 years ago while attending a marketing conference. I think I own all of his books and if you have every seen or heard him you know he ends almost everything he does with the dramatic phrase, “I’LL SEE YOU AT THE TOP!”

In the article I read he talked about the fact that he was a boxer from the seventh grade on through the Navy, and he boasted about his record of never finishing worse than second place. That actually made me laugh out loud. What a great way to put a positive spin on a boxing record. This is why Zig Ziglar is so well thought of – everything he does is from a very positive perspective.

He goes on to talk about how boxing is like business in a way, although the similar approach to boxing is taken in business for a very different reason. As a boxer, he said his coaches would instruct him to test the opponent out,probe for their weakness, and then exploit that weakness. This is basically true of many athletic competitions.

In the world of business and especially the selling and marketing aspects, this similar approach would be to ask the right questions to find out where the prospective customer or client was weak, in pain, or had needs that needed to be filled. Only after taking the time to learn this would we be able to design our product or service to strengthen their weakness, ease their pain or fill their need. Hence, the oldest success advice going: find a need and fill it.

So, this is good solid advice for businesses, but can we take a lesson from Zig and apply this to other areas of life as well? If you think about it, maybe many relationships would be stronger if the parties involved would take the time to find out what the needs of the other were and then meet them or help to fill them. I am sure there is a book or two that would chime in here and agree with me. Look no further to find “His Needs Her Needs”, or “The Five Love Languages” just to name a couple (no pun intended) books that are built along much of the same premise.

The bottom line here is that we could probably all strengthen any of our relationships, business or personal, by remembering the “find a need and fill it” philosophy. Maybe there is a New Year resolution in there somewhere.